Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill and Earl of Orrery

1621–1679

Introduction

Dramatic Works

Roger Boyle, first Earl of Orrery, had an eventful political life in Ireland and England, including fluctuating allegiances during the Civil War and Interregnum. He was also a highly prolific writer, who published verse, a lengthy prose romance, a treatise on the art of war, and several plays, most of which were successfully performed on the English stage. It is perhaps in the last genre that he made his most notable contribution to literature, since Orrery was one of the very first dramatists to introduce to the English stage the heroic play, the flamboyant type of drama, usually in rhyming pentameter couplets, which flourished in the 1660s and 1670s and of which the most prominant exponent was John Dryden (whose The Indian Queen, performed 25 January 1663/4, preceded Orrery's The Generall, although the latter, originally entitled Altamira, may well have been privately performed earlier in Ireland). A measure of the success of most of Orrery's plays, notably Henry the Fifth and Mustapha (despite Pepys's complaints in his diary about their dullness), is the number of contemporary manuscript copies that were produced, possibly on a commercial basis, before the plays were published.

Verse and Letters

A few poems by or attributed to Orrery also had a very limited circulation in manuscript (OrR 1-7). Otherwise Orrery's most prolific manuscript production lies in the numerous letters he wrote, chiefly in his various official or public roles. These are widely scattered, in repositories including the National Archives, Kew, British Library, Harvard, Yale, Huntington, and National Archives of Scotland, among others.

Facsimile examples of three autograph letters or documents by Orrery in the British Library appear, and are used for comparison of handwriting, in Antony Hammond, The Manuscript of Zoroastres, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 34-40 (plus Plates). Hammond argues that the unique manuscript of Zoroastres (OrR 41) is not in Orrery's own hand, that the spelling in the manuscript differs considerably from Orrery's, and that the ascription to him added later in another hand is insufficient evidence of authorship.

Abbreviations

Clark — The Dramatic Works of Roger Boyle, Earl of Orrery, ed. William Smith Clark, II, 2 vols (Cambridge, Mass., 1937).

Verse

On the Death of M^r Abraham Cowley and his Burial in Westminster Abbey. By the Earl of Orrery ('Our Wit till Cowley did its Lustre raise')

OrR 1

Copy, ascribed to The Earl of Orrery.

In: A folio verse miscellany, in a single neat hand, with some rubrication, 122 pages, with an index, in contemporary marbled boards.

With a title-page: Poems on Various Subjects Extracted cheifly from the Works of Some of the Most Celebrated Poets Scribendo Disces MDCCXLVII.

1747

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fc 60 pp. 73-6) | Catalogue | First Lines Index

'Reproach me not how heretofore'

36 lines, unpublished.

OrR 2

Copy, headed A Copy of Verses supposed to be made by y^e L^d. Broghill.

In: A duodecimo verse miscellany, in a single cursive hand, written with the volume turned sideways as oblong, with (f. 86v) an index in another hand, 86 leaves (including blanks) in contemporary calf gilt (rebacked).

This volume is a companion volume to British Library Egerton MS 669, which is signed by D: Frown[?] and was once owned by Charles Trumbull, D.D. (1646-1724) and Ralph Trumbull (c.1640-1708), brothers of Sir William Trumbull (1639-1716), lawyer and government official.

c.1667

Inscribed on the first page M^r: Mathews, Bbinder, D. Mar. 16. --67/o.o.o.6. [i.e. ? the bookseller Thomas Mathews (fl.1650s-60s)]. Bookplate of Robert Offley Ashburton Milnes, afterwards Crewe-Milnes (1858-1945), first Marquess of Crewe, politician. Purchased from Quaritch, October 1989.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 60000 through end (Add. MS 69823 ff. 17v-18v)

OrR 3

Copy, headed This Song was made by The Lord Broghill and here beginning Reproach mee not though heertofore.

In: A quarto miscellany of poems and plays, in probably three hands, written from both ends (Part I: paginated 1-15, 1-108, 1-72, 1-21; Part II: pp. 1-45), 261 pages (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary calf.

Inscribed Charles Crompton / Non magna / loquimur, / sed virimus / 1667, whose large rounded hand is probably responsible for a number of headings in the volume.

c.1667

Owned c.1872, by Sir Charles Bunbury, Bt, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Bookplate of Henry Edward Bunbury. Quaritch's sale catalogue No. 164 (October 1896), item 53. Item 348 in an unidentified sale catalogue. Formerly MS Add. 650.

This volume recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 241. Recorded, as of unknown whereabouts, in Clark, II, 965.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.220 Part I, p. 13 (first pagination)) | Catalogue

OrR 4 Late 17th century

Copy, followed by an Answer.

In: A guardbook of verse and other manuscripts.

Formerly Box No. 8.

University of Nottingham (Pw 2 V 62 [unspecified item]) | Catalogue

The Earl of Orrery to Mrs. Philips ('When I but knew you by report')

First published in Katherine Philips, Poems (London, 1667), sig. b^r-v.

OrR 5

Adapted extracts.

In: A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, in a single italic hand, entitled Gospell Obseruations & Religiu^s manifestations, 370 pages, in contemporary calf.

Entirely in the hand of Robert Overton (1608/9-1678/9), parliamentarian army officer, whose signature appears on a flyleaf. Prepared as a memorial and tribute to his wife, Ann Gardiner (d.1665), and written when in prison, either on Jersey or in the Tower of London.

c.1671/2

Inscribed inside the front cover Sam^l Atkins Wykeham and inside the rear cover 17 Feby 1879. Purchased this Book of Prescot Bookseller. Upper Arcade. Bristol...Edw^d G. Doggett.

This volume discussed extensively, with facsimile examples (of pp. 85-6, 151-2, 162, 166, 190-2), in David Norbrook, This blushinge tribute of a borrowed muse: Robert Overton and his Overturning of the Poetic Canon, EMS, 4 (1993), 220-66.

Princeton (CO199 No. 812 p. 173)

To Mr. Cowley on his Davideis ('When to the World thy Muse thou first didst show')

First published in Poems, by Several Persons (Dublin, 1669) [apparently unique existing exemplum in Folger C6681.5].

OrR 6

Copy, on rectos only, in a cursive italic hand, headed To M^r Cowley on his Davideis, subscribed L^d Brohill.

Edited from this MS in Ted-Larry Pebworth, The Earl of Orrery and Cowley's Davideis: Recovered Works and New Connections, MP, 76, No. 2 (November 1978), 136-48.

In: A quarto verse miscellany, neatly written in possibly several italic hands, perhaps connected with Christ Church, Oxford.

Mid-17th century

Recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 189.

The Marquess of Bath, Longleat House (MS 259 ff. 35r-7r)

OrR 7

Copy, headed To M^r Cowly on his Davideis by y^e L^d Brohill.

c.1667

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 60000 through end (Add. MS 69823 ff. 15r-17r)

Dramatic Works

Altamira

See OrR 10-11.

The Black Prince

First performed on the London stage 10 October 1667. First published London, 1669. Clark, I, 305-72.

OrR 8

Extracts.

In: An octavo compilation of extracts from plays and poems, in a single italic hand, written on rectos only from both ends (the two sections, 48 leaves each, virtually identical), 96 leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf, remains of clasps.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part I, p. 1) | Catalogue

OrR 8.5

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part II, pp. 1-6) | Catalogue

OrR 9

Copy, including a Prologue and Epilogue, in a professional rounded hand, with corrections, emendations and deletions in another hand, 125 folio leaves, in contemporary red morocco gilt.

c.1660s

Inscribed on a flyleaf Ex dono J. Anstis Garter King at Arms: i.e. John Anstis (1669-1744), antiquary. Bookplate of Thomas Morell, DD, FRS, FSA (1703-84), classical scholar and librettist. Later in the collection of Robert H. Taylor (1908-85), American book and manuscript collector.

Princeton (RTC01 No. 84) | Catalogue

The Generall

Probably privately performed (as Altamira) in Ireland, c.1662. Staged in London 14 September 1664. First published, and attributed to James Shirley, in J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps, A Brief Description of the Ancient and Modern Manuscripts Preserved in the Public Library, Plymouth: To which are added, Some fragments of Early Literature Hitherto Unpublished (London, 1853), pp. 55-175. Clark, I, 101-64.

OrR 10

Copy of the play, entitled The Generall, A Tragi=Comedy, in probably two professional hands (adopting two alternating styles of script), 33 leaves (plus three blanks), in modern half-calf boards.

c.1660s

Partly edited from this MS, with collations, in Clark.

Worcester College, Oxford (Plays 9.19)

OrR 11

Copy, described as The General: A tragi-comedy.

c.1660s?

Stated by Halliwell-Phillipps in 1853 to be in the Plymouth Proprietary Library, but no record of this known. Recorded by him in 1860 as having been in private hands. 4^to, 1853 (see Clark, II, 827-8).

Edited from this MS by Halliwell-Phillipps (1853). Partly edited from Halliwell-Phillipps's edition, with collations, in Clark.

Untraced, miscellaneous ([The Generall MS])

Henry the Fifth

First performed on the London stage 13 August 1664. First published London, 1668. Clark, I, 165-224.

OrR 12

Copy in a single hand, i + 47 large folio leaves.

Including names of actors in the Dramatis Personae.

c.1670

Inscribed names of Katherine Brudenell and Josheph Allen 1706.

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 1 through 49 (MS Rawl. poet. 2) | Catalogue

OrR 13

Copy, in a professional hand, with some corrections and additions in another hand, headed Kinge Henry the Fifth, iii + 35 folio leaves, gilt-edged, in black morocco gilt.

c.1660s

Inscribed name (f. i^r) M. S. Murray.

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 150 through 199 (MS Rawl. poet. 180) | Catalogue

OrR 14

Copy, in an italic hand, headed Henry the Fifth.

Inscribed Charles Crompton / Non magna / loquimur, / sed virimus / 1667, whose large rounded hand is probably responsible for a number of headings in the volume.

c.1667

This volume recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 241. Recorded, as of unknown whereabouts, in Clark, II, 965.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.220 Part I, pp. 1-72 (third pagination)) | Catalogue

OrR 15

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part I, pp. 4-8) | Catalogue

OrR 16

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part II, pp. 8-9) | Catalogue

OrR 17

Copy, in a professional roman hand up to f. 60r, then continued ff. 60r-3r in a cursive italic hand, untitled.

In: A folio volume comprising two plays by Orrery, in one or possibly two hands, 107 leaves (plus numerous blanks), written on rectos only, in brown crushed morocco gilt.

Late 17th century

The Folger Shakespeare Library: V.b. series (MS V.b.133 ff. 1r-63r) | Catalogue

OrR 18

Copy, on 30 folio leaves (plus 13 blanks), lacking covers.

In a single professional hand, without a title page but with decorated heading Henry y^e Fifth, inscribed by y^e Ea: of Orery in the hand of John Egerton (1623-86), second Earl of Bridgewater, Privy Counsellor, and numbered by him 8.

c.1664

This MS collated in Clark.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks A through E (EL 11642) | Catalogue

OrR 19

Copy, in a single predominantly italic hand, with a title-page The History of Henry the ffyfth Written by the Right Honourable The Earle of Orrery, with Dramatis Personae naming actors in the original stage production of 1664, 83 small quarto pages (plus some blanks), in contemporary calf.

c.1664

Bookplate of the Dogmersfield Library, of the St John-Mildmay family, Hampshire.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 20)

OrR 20

Copy, in a professional hand, in roman and italic scripts, with some stage directions (on pp. 6, 10, 17, 35 and 36), in a hand akin to that on pp. 2-5, without a title-page but headed King Henry the Fifth.

This MS collated in Clark.

In: MS of a play and two poems, in three different hands, i + 64 folio leaves (plus some blanks), in mottled calf gilt.

Late 17th century

Later owned by Robert Hoe (1839-1909), business man and book collector.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 11619 pp. 6-63)

OrR 21

Second copy (or abandoned start) of the first page of the play, in the same hand as OrR 20, inverted in the middle of blank leaves at the end of the volume.

In: MS of a play and two poems, in three different hands, i + 64 folio leaves (plus some blanks), in mottled calf gilt.

Late 17th century

Later owned by Robert Hoe (1839-1909), business man and book collector.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks F through M (HM 11619 p. [64])

OrR 22

Copy, in a professional rounded hand, 79 folio leaves, in olive green morocco gilt.

c.1660s

In the collection of Robert H. Taylor (1908-85), American book and manuscript collector.

Princeton (RTC01 No. 83) | Catalogue

OrR 23

Copy, entitled King Henry y^e Fifth written by y^e Earle of Orrery.

In: A quarto miscellany of poems and plays by Corbet Owen (1645/6-71) and others, a Catalogus Librorum at the reverse end, in probably several cursive predominantly italic hands, possibly associated with Oxford University, 166 leaves, in contemporary calf.

c.1671

Owned in 1671 by one J. H.. P.J. Dobell's sale catalogue The Literature of the Restoration (1918), item 1253. Purchased from Dobell in 1935.

University of Nottingham (Pw V 30 ff. 69r-125r) | Catalogue

Mr Anthony, Act IV. Song ('Since you must needs my heart posses')

Performed on the London stage probably before 14 December 1669. First published in London 1690.

OrR 24

Copy, untitled.

In: A folio formal verse miscellany, comprising c.406 poems, many of them song lyrics, in various neat hands, compiled probably over a period, 8 blank leaves (pp. [i-xvi]) + 10 unnumbered pages of poems (pp. [xvii-xxvi]) + 9 numbered pages (pp. 1-9) + ff. [9v]-151v + 12 leaves at the end blank but for a poem on the penultimate page (f. [11v]), in contemporary calf gilt.

Once erroneously associated with Thomas Killigrew (1612-83), whose hand does not appear in the volume.

Mid-17th century-c.1702

Inscribed (f. [ir]) S^r Robert Killigrew / 1702. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9070. Sotheby's, 19 May 1897, lot 455.

Discussed, with a facsimile example, in Nancy Cutbirth, Thomas Killigrew's Commonplace Book?, Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin, NS No. 13 (1980), 31-8.

University of Texas at Austin (Ms (Killigrew, T) Works B Commonplace book ff. 129v-30r) | Catalogue

Mustapha

First performed on the London stage 3 April 1665. First published, as Mustapha, The Son of Solyman the Magnificent, London, 1668. Clark, I, 225-304.

OrR 25

Copy, in an accomplished professional hand, headed The Tragædie of Mustapha, iv + 108 large folio pages, in contemporary calf gilt.

c.1670

Inscriptions inside the front and rear covers Cæcillya Huseys Book, Cicillia Freke, and W Shaw.

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 1 through 49 (MS Rawl. poet. 5) | Catalogue

OrR 26

Copy, in an accomplished professional hand, f. 1r a tipped-in leaf in a different hand, vi + 54 folio leaves (plus eight blanks), in contemporary black morocco gilt.

With alterations in black ink on ff. 9v-10v and 48r, and most of four lines deleted in brown ink on f. 50r.

Inscribed initials (f. i^r) D.R.

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 1 through 49 (MS Rawl. poet. 27) | Catalogue

OrR 27

Copy, in a single professional hand, a list of contents (f. 3v) added in another hand, 55 small folio leaves, in contemporary brown morocco gilt.

c.1660s

Inscribed name of J. Stuart deleted. Purchased on 5 October 1872 from William Carew Hazlitt (1834-1913), bibliographer and writer.

This MS collated in Clark.

The British Library: Additional MSS, numbers 25000 through 29999 (Add. MS 29280) | Catalogue | First Lines Index

OrR 28

Copy, in a single professional hand, with a title-page The Tragedie of Mustapha By the Earle of Orrery, on 126 folio pages, in contemporary calf gilt.

Late 17th century

Acquired from Hotmann & Freeman, October 1974. Formerly MS Add. 650.

The Folger Shakespeare Library: V.b. series (MS V.b.355) | Catalogue

OrR 29

Copy, in an italic hand, with a title-page in Compton's hand These Two Playes Mustapha And Henry y^e Fifth were made by the Lord Broghill Earl of Orery in Ireland; the next page with the title Mustapha written sideways; followed by the text of the play separately paginated 1-108, with a running head Mustapha.

Inscribed Charles Crompton / Non magna / loquimur, / sed virimus / 1667, whose large rounded hand is probably responsible for a number of headings in the volume.

c.1667

This volume recorded in HMC, 3rd Report (1872), Appendix, p. 241. Recorded, as of unknown whereabouts, in Clark, II, 965.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.220 Part I, pp. 15, 1-108 (second pagination)) | Catalogue

OrR 30

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part I, pp. 8-16) | Catalogue

OrR 31

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part II, pp. 10-11) | Catalogue

OrR 32

Copy, in a professional roman hand, with no title-page but headed Mustapha.

In: A folio volume comprising two plays by Orrery, in one or possibly two hands, 107 leaves (plus numerous blanks), written on rectos only, in brown crushed morocco gilt.

Late 17th century

The Folger Shakespeare Library: V.b. series (MS V.b.133 ff. 67r-107r) | Catalogue

OrR 33

Copy, in a single professional hand, without a title-page, 52 folio leaves, inscribed by y^e Earle of Orery in the hand of John Egerton (1623-86), second Earl of Bridgewater, Privy Counsellor, and numbered by him 7., lacking covers.

c.1665

This MS collated in Clark.

The Huntington Library, shelfmarks A through E (EL 11641)

OrR 34

Copy, in a professional hand, 54 folio leaves (plusa number of blanks), in contemporary black morocco gilt.

Late 17th century

Inscribed (p. 1) Elyzebeth Walsingham her boock 1680. Bookplate of Sir William Bennet, second Baronet (d.1729), of Grubett, 1707. Christie's, 22 June 1988, lot 96 to Quaritch.

Estate of Robert S Pirie, New York ([Mustapha MS])

OrR 35

Copy, in a professional italic hand, 125 large folio pages (plus two blank leaves), in modern cloth.

c.1670

Inscribed (f. i^r) Katherine Brudenell.

University of Chicago (MS 592) | Catalogue

OrR 36

Copy, in a single hand, entitled Mustapha A Tragedy. / Earle of Orrery / 1667, 154 quarto pages, in vellum boards.

c.1667

John Wolfson, New York ([Mustapha MS])

Tryphon

OrR 37

Copy in a single hand, entitled Triphon / A Trage-Comedy / Written by the right honourable / Roger Earle of Orrery, 138 quarto leaves (plus title-page and blanks).

c.1770-80

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Malone Collection (MS Malone 11) | Catalogue

OrR 38

Copy, in a stylish professional hand, headed Tryphon A trage=Comedie, lacking a title-page, ii + 56 folio leaves, in contemporary black morocco gilt.

c.1660s

This MS collated in Clark.

Bodleian Library, Rawlinson Collection, Rawl. poet. 1 through 49 (MS Rawl. poet. 39) | Catalogue

OrR 39

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part I, pp. 1-4) | Catalogue

OrR 40

Extracts.

Late 17th century

Booklabel of the John Dryden Collection formed by Percy J. Dobell (1876-1956), bookseller.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, V.a.series, 200 through 299 (MS V.a.226 Part II, pp. 6-8) | Catalogue

Dramatic Works of Doubtful Authorship

Zoroastres

Written c.1675. No stage performance recorded. First published as The Tragedy of Zoroastres, ed. Montague Summers (Cambridge, [1917]). Clark, II, 643-99. The attribution in the unique MS doubtful.

OrR 41

Copy, in several non-professional hands or styles of hand (but not Orrery's hand), with deletions and alterations, some on pasted-on slips of paper, with a title-page The Tragedy of Zoroastres, Written by the right honourable The late Earl of Orrery added in another hand, written in 1676 inscribed in a small hand on the list of dramatis personae (f. 46v). c.1676.

Edited from this MS in Clark. Discussed, with facsimile examples and the attribution to Orrery effectively dismissed, in Antony Hammond, The Manuscript of Zoroastres, The Library, 5th Ser. 30 (1975), 34-40 (plus Plates). Facsimile of f. 77r in DLB, vol. 80, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists. First Series, ed. Paula R. Backscheider (Detroit, 1989), p. 34.

In: A folio composite volume of parliamentary speeches, tracts and plays, in various hands, 170 leaves, in half morocco gilt.

The British Library: Sloane Collection (Sloane MS 1828 ff. 46r-80v)

Roger Boyle, Baron Broghill and Earl of Orrery

Introduction

Dramatic Works

Verse and Letters

Abbreviations

Verse

Dramatic Works

Dramatic Works of Doubtful Authorship

Contents